Gas, electric and telephone utility companies continuously install and upgrade operating equipment (utility assets) in the areas serving their customer base. Proper identification and location is necessary for utility databases and field maintenance purposes. Additionally, reference landmarks for locations of previously installed assets in the field change as urban environments evolve. Consequently, utility companies must accurately locate and periodically re-locate these assets geographically in their databases. This is important, since only verifiable locations for assets, by an independent regulatory audit, are allowed to be included by the utility in the customer rate base.
Current industry practice primarily involves manual measuring methods and apparatus for locating assets. Typically, this involves recording distances measured from existing landmarks. This method is time consuming, subject to measurement error by the operator, and is sometimes difficult to interpret by auditors. Consequently, assets are included in the rate base only after considerable delay.
In the prior art, an alidade ranging apparatus has been used in a vehicle, however it is manually controlled and positioned. One operator must physically move the laser ranging device. Unfortunately, this method of surveying is still slow and usually required two persons--a driver and an operator.